Empatia e giustizia nella ricezione artistica dei casi e del processo intorno al terrorismo nero in Germania

Abstract

The article analyses the various levels on which justice figures as a motif in Fatih Akin’s film In the fade (2017). According to my reading, ‘justice’ informs on the level of aesthetics of reception as well as at the level of production: first, the film is the first attempt to render justice to the families of the victims of the Nsu-terror in Germany by acknowledging their sufferance and integrating them into the circle of people for whom we feel empathy and solidarity. Second, the film thematizes the conflicts between justice and individual agency in a post-metaphysical setting. More generally, by drawing on the theoretical instruments of Law and Literature studies, the film also can be understood as an attempt to influence the normative web with which to evaluate the real-world court case against members of the Nsu, which was still ongoing when Akin’s film came out.